"So, did you make up your mind?", Jongin, always the annoying one, asked for the ninth time.

"No"

"I don't get it, why are you thanking so long to decide! You either go or not, it's not rocket science". It was a way too hot afternoon for Sori's liking, and Jongin was hell bent into annoying whomever had enough patience to stand his rambling for more than thirty seconds. Now it was Sori's turn. She had seen a murderous glare coming from Kyungsoo, but what could she do to stop him? If Jongin wanted to risk his life just for the sake of acting like a toddler, it was fine by her.

"Jongin, stop it", Minseok whined. He had been asking Sori the same question for the last two days, and in the last two hours he had decided to drive everyone insane by repeating the same question every five minutes. Ever since Sori had hinted about Narae's invite to visit her previous pack house, Jongin had been pushing Sori's patience like an hydraulic press, and he was just about to get a good beating from Kyungsoo.

"It's not my fault Sori is taking years just to make up her mind about such an easy matter. It's not like there's a million different options. She either goes or she doesn't", Jongin shrugged, not in the slightest bothered by the mood of the rest of the pack. Sori couldn't really hold him accountable for his stupid behavior. She just couldn't phantom what it was like to be a baby in an old man's body. She stared at him as he played with his feet, that were resting an inch away from Sehun's face just to annoy him more.

"Lord save me", Sehun muttered under his breath before he turned to Sori. "Do you really have no idea? Have you thought about any possible scenarios? Because I've been thinking about inviting the members of BTS you haven't had the chance to meet ever since you joined us here, but I don't see that ending well". Sehun had been quite reserved as long as Sori had been in EXO, quite a drastic difference from the Sehun Sori had first met in the club. Still, it wasn't unpleasant spending time with him, and he could be quite funny although he was mostly a quiet person. He was a little bit weird aloof, but in a good way. From time to time he liked to flirt a little, but that was it.

"No, I just... I don't really want to think about it. I don't think I'm ready just yet", Sori replied, barely moving her eyes from the screen of her phone. She had spent the whole afternoon reading Hoseok's texts from the day after she had been forced to leave the pack. It was a quite an interesting balance between apologizing and guilty tripping her at first, then it turned into a long complain about being him the only one she was ignoring, which wasn't even true, and then the messages merged towards telling her about his daily stuff and wondering about how, and when, they will meat again. At this point, Sori couldn't really say she was surprised by his behavior. More like she felt the stung of betrayal, but not enough to cause a reaction, or the will to text him back. So what if he thought she was wrong for trying to move one without clearing the air with them? Sori thought they were wrong too, just as much as they were convinced of the opposite. He was entitled to have his own opinion, and albeit she wanted to defend herself, she also strongly believe she owed him, or BTS in general, no explanation for her decisions. She had no obligation to explain what she felt and why, or even just to sit there and listen to their excuses. A part of her brain told her it was normal for her old pack to try and explain themselves, and that maybe if she were one of those who were left behind she probably would have liked to have the chance to apologize to that person face to face or let the other person understand her point of view. Still, hadn't Namjoon always insisted she was free to do as she pleased? How come now they were trying to force their morals on her then?

"Why don't you meet in a cafe? That way you won't be stuck between a rock and hard place. You can leave if you feel like it, and you won't have to ask them to leave if they cross the line. Also, that way you would not feel threatened by having to stay in the pack house to talk with them, right?", Jongdae gave his two cents. Jongdae was quite perceptive, and if at first Sori had had the impression of a polite but silent man, she had then learnt, scream after scream, that he was a very passionate, clever and loud man, who enjoyed playing around even though he needed his alone time every now and then.

"Uhm, honestly, I don't know. I don't... like to eat in front of him", Sori carefully put down her phone, pretending not to notice the perplexed glances thrown in her direction. "Maybe... I don't know, I could meet someone else before I try talking things out with him", she muttered. Actually, after the way Yoongi had behaved himself around her, Sori wasn't really sure she wanted to meet the rest of her ex-pack so soon. They weren't exactly bettering their image with their behavior.

"Then why don't we try and organize something with Narae, at least?", Chen asked, "I'm sure she will be able to give you an advice on whom or, eventually, if inviting another member of BTS to your little date might be useful". He was always calm, never speaking harshly or nonsensically, which made it quite hard for Sori to just refuse his suggestion again by making up some kind of bull. "If you organize it at time those you don't want to meet are busy, then you won't have to offer them any kind of explanation as to why you don't want to see them and they won't get the chance to act all offended", he shrugged.

"Yes, maybe...", she said absentmindedly. This one was absolutely a good idea, had it not been for how tired she was on a mental level she would have given it some thought right away.

"Come on, we are not sending you there alone, stop pouting!", Chanyeol whined, always the impatient one. "Pick a couple of us you want there, and let's get over with this anxiety". Albeit he had been kind of intimidating at the beginning, now Sori seemed to be able to get along with him quite easily. He was always very easygoing and gentle, not to mention that the intimidating appearance granted by his height was quickly ruined by his goofiness and clumsiness.

"It's just that, uhm, I don't really want to pick anyone over anyone else, honestly. Maybe we could, uhm, I don't know, if any of you are particularly curious about a BTS member, than... maybe I can ask Narae to bring them", Sori asked more than stated. Despite the awkward conversation, Sori wasn't really that bothered by EXO. It was quite difficult to phantom a good reason why a male wolf adult would be so openly interested into getting to know another male adult wolf they only, or mostly, only hear bad things about.

In complete honesty, Sori was actually finding it quite hard to focus on this whole discussion when she could feel the weirdest pressure on her lower belly. She had read about it, she had looked up other people's experiences too, just to make sure she had more points of view to analyze and understanf her situation, yet now that she was experiencing this. It just felt weird and uncomfortable. Thank God she had read about it earlier on, otherwise she would have just believed there was something wrong with the baby. Heck, if this was what her uterus expanding felt like now, Sori really couldn't imagine what it would be like in the last weeks of pregnancy. Was there actually going to be a moment this pregnancy wouldn't make her feel uncomfortable? Her pregnancy books stated so multiple times, however she was holding a different opinion.

The uncomfortable silence was stretching for more than the couple of minutes Sori had hoped for. It was getting painfully awkward, yet she couldn't manage to say anything to start a conversation and the others had finished all the possible small talk. They had assessed the weather a couple of times already.

How had Narae managed to convince her that meeting both Namjoon and Hoseok wouldn't be too bad? They had nothing to say, nor did she. They all just sat there in silence, which attracted the attention of the waiter, who could easy be seen scrutinizing their table from time to time. Who wouldn't find weird if a bunch of people sat in a bar in complete silence for half an hour?

"So...", Junmyeon tried to get the conversation going once again, as he cleared his throat. Sori really wanted to help him, after all this whole situation was her problem to fix and handle, not his, but she couldn't find it in her to say more than monosyllabic words every now and then to prove she was keeping a collaborative attitude. She was squeezed between Junmyeon and Baekhyun, and she was painfully aware of Hoseok's inquiring eyes fixed on her. She just wasn't brave enough to stare right back at him, moreover she was distracted by Jungkook's scent that seemed lo linger around the members of BTS. Had they purposefully kept close to him to make her smell his lingering scent? "Have you heard anything about the rogues?". Sori knew there hadn't been big attacks like the one on the Block B pack, but that didn't mean much. Chanyeol and Minseok had given her a brief explanation on how wolf wars happened in the last centuries or so, and it was a quite used tactic to hire a bunch of brainless rogues with the promise of giving them a good pay or a spot in the pack, and then let them to get destroyed by the packs they were ordered to attack, who were often ended up destroyed or heavily damaged themselves by the attacks. To Sori's knowledge, Minseok was the one who had fought the most wars between the members of EXO, as his family was part of a military group in a very old pack, and he basically told her he suspected someone had recruited those rogues, maybe by turning humans to make sure there were enough of them and have them attack other packs by following the good, old war style of wolves, and then they had lost control over the rogues which ended up in a series of uncoordinated attacks. Chanyeol had agreed with him and had added that the first few attacks were stronger because the group of rogues was still big and they were fighting together. Their hunch was that after having understood they wouldn't get what they had been promised, the rogues had made smaller alliances between themselves to get rid of the other rogues, and the latest attacks were the result of this situation. It was worrisome that the rogues had reached their lands, but at the same time they weren't as worried as they were before, because the groups of rogues were smaller, hence there wasn't going to be that much of a fight to kill them.

"Not much really, how about you?". It was all so formal and stiff. In the end she reckoned it was her fault such a big group had to meet up in a public place, because she had acted like a coward, but again the others had no reason to act so stuffy, hence it wasn't totally her fault. Moreover, as long as Namjoon and Junmyeon kept talking no one was going to bother her with uncomfortable questions.

"Pretty much the same. We're going to meet with Jiho and some of his guys around next week and then he'll tell me if he knows more than we do. I think the government wasn't really happy about the attack and that whole mess. Jiho was worried they would get moved soon, and I have to say I agree with him, although I haven't seen him in a while...". It had been such an unfortunate episode for Block B. Not only were they attacked and lost some of the members of their pack so horribly, but the government had officially admonished them too, and Kyungsoo had explained her that the government didn't like people who stepped out of their lines. An admonishment was already bad enough because it meant they had caught the attention of the humans with their actions, and thus the government's. In their world people wasn't given many chances to clear their name, no matter what happened. If the government decided you cause more problems than you were worth, you were going to die by their hands, one way or another. So, for the most part, people just complied when they were told nicely. If Block B had in fact been admonished there were little chances for them to stay in their lands much longer. Not that it was necessarily something bad, but to move such a big pack without attracting too much attention, the procedure would have to be long and very well scheduled. They were probably going to be moved in some far away town and all their houses were going to be sold, so that the government could get rid of the houses that clearly had hosted weres and buy new ones in different areas of the town where people would have no suspects about their new neighbors.

"Did you go and try to track down those scents in the end?", Namjoon spoke directly to Sori for the first time ever since they had arrived. In BTS her ability to track preys had been highly considered by all of he members, despite the poor training she had received. She had only improved her skills thanks to EXO who let her explore her capabilities and took the time to explain her the various and different techniques she could use to discover scents, along with having helped understanding and catalog each and every scent she could perceive. Thanks to the pregnancy her ability to track scents had received a big booster too, and now that she was training in better conditions and with the guidance of Jiho, together with the members of EXO, she felt more confident in her skills. Sure, she could agree with Junmyeon that BTS weren't necessarily acting against her or trying to make her feel useless, she could also somewhat agree that they were trying to protect her by not forcing any training on her, but she couldn't deny she felt way more satisfied with herself and her new, refined skills now than she had ever felt in BTS. She almost felt brave and independent, although Sori reckoned she still had a lot to do before she could define herself as an independent person.

"No, it had already been too long for her to be of any help to Jiho's pack, but Jiho promised he will take her with him the next time he'll hear about one of the rogues so that she'll try and track him down", Junmyeon proudly answered in her stead. Was it too childish to keep letting, more like silently begging, Junmyeon to answer all the question asked to her so far?

"Good, I'm sure Sori will do a good job. Her capability of following and finding scents is well known in our pack", Namjoon confidently stated, trying to make it clear that he still knew Sori better and he was still her alpha. To Sori in was both a pleasant and an unpleasant feeling. If on one hand he was still acting quite arrogantly, refusing to reckon Sori had definitely left his pack, on the other hand he was also silently stating his pack was not giving up on her. He looked a little too convinced Sori was going to go back to them, way more than Sori herself, in all honesty.

Hoseok looked a little bewildered, his mouth slightly curving downwards and his eyebrows raising in displeasure. He glanced at both Junmyeon and Namjoon before he spit out his opinion on the matter.

"And you both agree this is a good idea?", he questioned, still clearly showing his uneasiness on the matter, "No one cares that she's pregnant?"

"And why would they decide anything that doesn't concern them in the first place? She's an adult, she gets to decide what she wants to do", Sehun sarcastically stepped in. This was unexpected. Sehun wasn't one to get involved in matters he could avoid. It was already surprising enough that he had decided to come along to the cafe!

“Do you realize they are the alphas for a reason, right? They get to make the calls on those beneath them and they have to think about the well being of the members of their packs even when the members themselves don't feel like taking care of themselves”, Hoseok's hostility was badly hidden. Probably because he didn't actually feel like hiding it. He had never shown much sympathy for them anyway, so Sori wasn't really surprised by this outburst. What she couldn't pinpoint was why he was there if he found EXO so annoying. She had made it clear from the very first moment that she wasn't going to meet any of them, aside from Narae, on her own.

“Yes, yes, we've gone there already. You alpha, actually your whole pack, cared about Sori's health so much you decided to kick her out of the pack in the night, knowing there could be rogues around in you lands, who were probably planning an attack one of our packs, and without letting her take any of her belongings. Amazing choice, by the way. Now Sori gets to decide what she wants to do”, Sehun sassed again. Wow, that was hot. Okay, maybe the Sehun she had met that night was still there somewhere in the body of this manchild and the few times she got to see him again were really hot!

“We made a big mistake, but that doesn't change the fact that she will have to run under the sun and covered in fur. You know that's not good for her nor the baby, don't you?”, Hoseok tried again, gritting his teeth, doing his best to hold his ground without openly starting a fight. Surprisingly, Hoseok was putting more effort to keep the conversation going without make it escalate to an argument. At least she could appreciate his effort, and on this note, this was probably a good time to start speaking up for herself without they both took it too far. Despite the undeniable fact that she didn't feel comfortable around BTS and she was still feeling betrayed and angry, she didn't want Sehun to ruin BTS and EXO's relationship just to defend her.

“Are you implying I would hurt my baby on purpose, Hoseok?”. Okay, maybe this wasn't the most peaceful way to add her two cents to the conversation, but what could Sori do if it came out like that?

“What? No!”, Hoseok screeched outraged. “Why would I say that?! I'm just saying it's not good for the both of you to stay under the sun for a long time! It takes a while to track scents, you know? Maybe you'll be there hours, what if you get dehydrated? I know you want to prove yourself, I'm just saying it could be dangerous!”, he ranted, shaking his head, “Man, why would you say something like that about me? I'm not perfect, but I'm not that much of a ”.

“Ok, fine. It's just that Yoongi didn't seem to care that much about not acting like a , I'm sure he told you about it”. This was a total provocation. She was baiting his, waiting for him to make a mistake as she stared at him, eyebrows raised and judging expression full on. Okay, maybe she wasn't dealing with this the right way and hitting Hoseok where it hurt wasn't fair. How was he supposed to control another person's behavior when he wasn't even there in the first place? She knew she shouldn't have said it, she truly did, because Yoongi was always Hoseok's sore point, but now it was too late and the shock in her ex-pack mate's eyes was making it more that clear for her. Fine, she had messed up.

There was a long moment of silence in which, no doubt about it, Hoseok was carefully weighting his words to avoid detonating the bomb that sat at his table. Sori should have probably done the same thing, but alas...

“Yes, he told about that, and he is very sorry about it, I have no doubt he will make it up to you soon”, Hoseok raised his hand to stop her from interrupting his speech, “You know how much I care about him and it saddens me to think you would use such arguments against me, but let me tell you that I am not hyung and as much as it pains me, I won't defend him. Today I came here because I wanted to see you with my own to eyes to make sure you are okay, that your are doing fine although we are not there to help you anymore. I wanted to see if you were showing. I came here because I wanted to apologize for my behavior before you left, erm, you were sent away from the pack”, he quickly corrected his mistake, “Today I absolutely wanted to come here and see you because you're not answering any of my texts and I wanted to know what you were up to. I wanted to know if you miss me as much as I miss you”. He ended his annoyingly formal speech in such a sweet way Sori was stunned. She needed more time to digest his words.

“What happened with Yoongi?”, whispered Sehun. Junmyeon elbowed him in the ribs, trying to get him to shut up.

“Actually, I would like to apologize in Yoongi's stead, Sori”, Namjoon directly addressed her for the first time ever since their little conversation at lunch in EXO's pack house. It was definitely weird to have this mixed up relationship with Namjoon, yet Sori didn't know how to mend it or even if they would ever be at peace again. It was undoubtedly sad, but also undeniably true.

“It's fine, you don't have to apologize for him”, Sori dismissed his words right away, but they didn't seemed to be ready to just move on to the next topic yet.

“No, seriously, I'm so sorry he ruined such an important moment for you”. For the first time ever since the night before he kicked her out of the pack, Namjoon hesitantly moved his arm towards Sori with the obvious intention of touching her. It was supposed to be a comforting gesture, but the way he was slowly moving towards her made him look like someone who had to deal with lunatic animals. Sure, at times she had acted like a lunatic, but was she really so aggressive they needed to move carefully around her not to trigger any reaction from her? “He briefly explained me why he said those things, and albeit I do understand where he was coming from, I also think he should have chosen a better moment to tell you his opinion an